Russian grocery retailer Magnit has launched a new payment service app, Magnit Pay, developed in association with VTB group.
The Magnit Pay app allows customers to pay for their purchases in any store, as well as online.
The service is available to members of the company’s loyalty programme.
'An Important Milestone'
Magnit’s deputy CEO and executive director, Florian Jansen, said, “The launch of Magnit Pay represents an important milestone in the establishment of Magnit’s super app. We want to be at our customers’ side at all times, and so strive to create convenient and easily accessible services they can use every day.
“During the coming months, we will refine the basic functionality of Magnit Pay and incrementally add new services to expand the opportunities for our customers and make being a part of Magnit’s ecosystem as rewarding as possible.”
How It Works
After registering in the app, users gain access to a virtual card with a monthly spending limit.
The card will also enable customers to transfer money to any Russian payment card.
Customers can top up their card for free, as well as link it to other payment services.
Loyalty programme members using Magnit Pay will get an additional 0.5% of their purchase amount accrued as bonus points, the retailer added.
‘High-Quality Financial Services’
Svyatoslav Ostrovsky, member of the management board at VTB, said, “One of VTB’s major objectives is to incorporate simple yet high-quality financial services into regular and super apps of our strategic partners.
“We see great potential in integrating our products into lifestyle services catering to a broad audience, to enable customers to use a single interface to access convenient tools."
The retailer plans to introduce third-party payment services, such as utilities, telecommunications, fines, through this service.
Other features will include contactless payments for customers whose smartphones are not NFC-enabled and wire transfers between its loyalty programme members.
Magnit’s customers will be able to withdraw cash from VTB ATMs using a QR-code, the retailer added.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
